Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
This invention relates to a two-wheeled cart with an extended handle for the levered lifting and balanced moving of bales, such as bales of hay. More particularly, hay baled in the form of a rectangular solid is received by the cart at a hay bale receiving loader frame and lifted from the ground under leverage about the wheels applied from the handle used for pulling the cart. Once the bale is lifted by the handle and centrally balanced on an axle between the wheels of the cart, the hay bale receiving loader frame on the cart can be pivoted in a plane parallel to the axle of the cart. This pivot can occur from a lifting disposition, where the major axis of a bale receiving frame is parallel to the axle between the wheels, to a transport disposition, where the major axis of the hay-bale-receiving loader frame is normal to the axle between the wheels. The hay bale receiving loader permits severing of bale ties with retention of the bale contents within the bale receiving loader for convenient flake dispensing of the bale contents.
Hay is commonly baled in what may be described as a wire-bound rectangular solid. As distinguished from a cube (having six equal area sides joining one another at right angles), a rectangular solid has a periphery of four elongate sides relative to a major axis. The rectangular solid is closed at either end by minor sides parallel to minor axes taken normal to the major axis of the rectangular solid. When hay is baled in a rectangular solid, hay is crowded to the bale at right angles to the major axis of the bale. Typical dimensions of such a hay bale are 48 inches along the major axis, and 24 inches along each minor axis. Weight of a bale of hay can be in the range of 100 pounds. The hay is maintained in its baled format by binding ties or wires. When the binding ties or wires are released, hay xe2x80x9cflakesxe2x80x9d from the bale in sections parallel to the minor axes of the bale.
Hay is commonly fed to horses and cattle. Distribution of hay for feeding from the large and heavy wire bound bale can be difficult, especially for smaller women and children. Prior to a feeding, the bale is dragged or trucked to a location near the animal feed site. Thereafter, the binding ties are severed, and portions of the bale flaked normal to the major axis of the bale and distributed (usually by pitchfork) to about five or six animals having a single feeding from a bale.
Two-wheeled lift trucks have been adapted for moving hay bales. See Mings, U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,856 entitled xe2x80x9cHay Bale Carrier,xe2x80x9d Keller et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,515 entitled xe2x80x9cHand Truck Having Tines and an Arm for Separating Flakes from Bales of Hay and Like Material,xe2x80x9d and Smith U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,557 entitled xe2x80x9cManual Transport Vehicle.xe2x80x9d These devices are conventional handled lift trucks adapted to the special problem of moving hay bales. Bales are transported with an end adjacent the hand truck axles and the bales disposed with their major axis angularly extending upward relative to the ground. With the bale disposed in this disposition, the load is difficult to balance and requires strength. Further, these devices make little or no provision for transport of hay after release of the binding ties about the bale; the released hay easily separates from the bale on such a hand truck.
A two-wheeled cart is provided with an extended handle for the levered lifting and balanced moving of bales, such as bales of hay. Hay baled in the form of a rectangular solid is received by the cart at a hay-bale-receiving loader frame having at least two major sides for confronting two corresponding major sides of hay baled in the form of a rectangular solid. The baled hay is met by the hay-bale-receiving loader frame, with the hay bale being rolled 90xc2x0 onto the loader frame. Once on the loader frame with the major axis of the loader frame disposed parallel to the axle, the hay bale is lifted from and balanced relative to the ground under leverage on the axle applied from the handle used for pulling the cart. The handle is moved from a substantially vertical lifting position to a substantially horizontal pulling position for hay bale transport. Balancing of the bale occurs with two major surfaces of the hay-bale-receiving loader frame disposed at 45xc2x0 angles relative to the axle. The loader frame pivots 90xc2x0 in a plane parallel to the axle with the two major sides of the loader frame remaining in a 45xc2x0 disposition relative to the axle between the wheels. Once the bale is lifted and centrally balanced relative to the cart by the handle, the hay-bale-receiving loader frame on the cart can be pivoted. The pivot can occur from the lifting disposition to a transport disposition where the major axis of the hay-bale-receiving loader frame and hay bale is normal to the axle between the wheels of the two-wheeled cart. The hay-bale-receiving loader permits severing of bale ties with retention of the tie-released bale contents within the bale-receiving loader for convenient dispensing of the bale contents.